Absolute Beginners
by Lyanna Hamilton
Summary: Modernish AU, where the detectives are high school students, best friends, and trying to navigate their way to finally becoming coppers. Includes Ashes to Ashes characters too. Mostly LoM set.


**Authors Note:**

**Hi! I've loved this fandom for years, but I've only just got up the courage to make an account.**

**This au is basically set sometime in the nineties- time inexact for the moment. And it basically follows the LoM and A2A team as if they were all friends who met at school.**

**The first few chapters are slow and explanatory, so let me know what you think!**

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Chapter 1

The halls of the Greater Manchester High School were filled with laughter and good-natured bickering. Alex Price sighed and hitched her school bag higher up her shoulder, her hazely green eyes searching for any sign of the senior students she was to be grouped with. Out of nowhere she saw a large group of seniors walking towards her. They were laughing and joking, apparently teasing one of the others for being what she could swear was called a Div.

"That's enough" a handsome teen announced warningly. He had shining light brown eyes, medium brown hair and a thin figure but seemed to convey an air of quiet authority without really trying. She liked him at once, his seventies sense of fashion notwithstanding. Actually, now that she looked, they all (all five of them, apart from a girl that favoured eighties fashion) looked like people from the seventies.

"Better listen up, lads" another equally handsome teen grinned. He had hard blue eyes, a stern countenance and an assured air of leadership. Alex reckoned he had to, wearing that camelcoat. A brave decision all round that. "We don't want Tyler gettin' his panties in a bunch."

"Guv" Tyler groaned, smoothing down a crease on his black leather jacket.

"Dorothy" 'Guv' replied automatically. From what Alex could gather, they didn't seem to like each other too much, but she could be mistaken - it did happen about once a year.

"Gene" Tyler sighed to Guv. He looked as if the other was tap dancing on his last nerve. "We're late for class."

"And what 'ave we got first, Gladys?" Gene asked in a tone that was dripping with sarcasm.

"English Literature" Tyler replied calmly, Alex deciding that he had to have the patience of a saint to put up with him.

"We have Biology" a pretty brunette girl with wide blue eyes announced as if she were trying to dispel the tension between the two obvious leaders. Gene glowered around at the others, pinning them with his glare.

"Raymundo, Christopher, Shaz, I expect good reports from our new Head Girl. If I don't, I'll have your knackers as a necktie. Got it?"

"Yes Guv!"

"Excellent" Gene smirked. "Come along, Sammy-Boy, we've got work to do." He strode off, leaving the teen she assumed to be called Sam Tyler to follow after him.

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Alex approached the others cautiously, seeing a well-built male with dark hair and blue eyes drag a scrawnier boy with similar attributes off down another corridor.

"How do I get to final year Biology?" Alex asked curiously. "I know it's rude of me, but I couldn't help but overhear your conversation."

"Come with us" the pretty brunette smiled. "I'm Annie Cartwright, the Head Girl, and this is Sharon Granger." An equally pretty dark haired, dark eyed girl beamed in hello. "You must be new."

"Yeah" Alex sighed. "Alex Price. I just moved from London."

"We've been to London!" Sharon stated cheerfully. "We were the supporters for the football team. We came second in the National Championships last year. The Guv was actually happy about it, even if we did get beaten by the team from Chelsea Boys."

"Yes, I saw him. Seems such a _cheerful_ man."

"You mustn't judge him by this morning" Annie informed her earnestly. "He wasn't too pleased to find out that Sam had been hiding being Head Boy for most of the summer." Alex frowned, hitching her bag up again. This information just gave her more questions about the Guv and his relationship with the handsome Head Boy. Her confusion must have shown on her face because Sharon laughed.

"Let me guess, you thought they hated each other."

"It did seem that way" Alex admitted apologetically.

"They like it that way" Sharon grinned. "Unfortunately, Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt have been best friends since they were about three. Inseparable. You're in for a treat later though, at lunch we'll get to hear all about their summer, which they naturally spent together. Not even Ray and Chris got invited." She sounded quite put out about it actually. Annie just smiled in her warm way and shrugged.

"That's just the way they are. But they'll probably take to you immediately."

"Why is that?" Alex asked curiously, wanting to know more.

"Two reasons" Annie smiled, leading the way into the science block. "One, you've got the Advanced Law textbook in your bag, and two, each and every one of us here is a little bit different from the other students. Whether we be orphans, children from broken homes, in the system; whatever the reason, we all seem to fit together. Believe me, you wouldn't have approached us if you weren't supposed to be with us." Alex just smiled warmly and followed.

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At lunch, Alex walked out of her second period History class alone. It wasn't that nobody she recognised took the class, just that Annie and Shaz didn't. In fact, the only person in the class she knew at all was Sam Tyler, but he had sat at the front, studiously making notes and correctly answering any question anyone asked. She followed him into the canteen, taken by surprise at what happened next. Gene came out of nowhere and punched Sam in the face, sending him crashing into the doors. Sam picked himself up, fixed up his striped shirt and nodded once to Annie. Then, he rugby tackled Gene into the nearest table, before the two of them started trading blows and yelled insults. "Is this normal?" Alex asked Annie in disbelief. There was no way these two were best friends, not the way they were yelling and not holding back on their punches.

"It happens about once a month" Annie sighed. "I think the Guv has been wanting to do that all day." Eventually, mutually, the two just stopped fighting, instead laying back on the floor while Gene smoked a cigarette and Sam wore a disapproving expression he'd long since perfected. "Come on" Annie smiled, seeing the duo grab a pile of bacon butties on their way outside. "Time to meet the gang."

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**Well, that's that. Please review!**


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